Colloquium: Dr. Yumi Matsumoto

Dr. Yumi Matsumoto, Assistant Professor of Education in the Education Linguistics Division, will present a colloquium titled: "The Power of a Multimodal Approach to English as a Lingua Franca Interactional Analysis."

In her dissertation, Dr. Matsumoto focused on communicative strategies for resolving miscommunication using multimodal interactional resources—such as gesture, embodied action, laughter, and material objects—in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts. Simply put, ELF is a practice where interlocutors with various linguistic and cultural backgrounds use English as a means of communication. Her major research interests include ELF, intercultural communication, and pragmatics. She developed a new multimodal orientation to the conceptualization of ELF by conducting multimodal analysis of ELF academic discourse. Dr. Matsumoto’s primary objectives in this area of research are to (a) exhibit how multilingual students and instructors use miscommunication as a space for negotiating differences; (b) to develop an alternative, positive view of multilingual speakers and intercultural communication; and (c) to uncover the pedagogical implications of this work for language teacher education.

Dr. Matsumoto is also investigating various functions of laughter and humor in ELF interactions, in both informal and academic contexts. Combining sequential analysis with ethnographic information, she closely analyzes how ELF speakers employ laughter, and how interactants with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds can successfully construct humor. Her goals in this research area are to demonstrate the intricate process of constructing humor and to examine the possible relationship between humor and second language development.